Pheasants are catching "Hell" in SD

Dakotazeb

Dakotazeb

Well-known member
With the storm we've had going on the past two days and continuing into tomorrow the pheasants are going to take a huge hit and it will be a really tough remainder of the winter for them. A foot and a half, or more, of snow on top of the foot we alrady had and sustained 40 mph winds will cover many up and make finding food sources difficult. This is the third tough winter in a row. :( Thinking about moving south! :)
 
All's not lost, lots of times there is super compensation during the spring after a tough winter, especially if the conditions are right at nesting season, and the habitat is there. I'm also shocked at how long pheasants can "hole up" and subsist on body fat. For sure this is the poster child for habitat, and more habitat! New Year needs to bring a warm spring with moderate and timely moisture.
 
hard to believe how big of a difference there was yesterday in the weather. We hit almost 60 yesterday. Heck, at midnight it was still 56 degrees. I'd still rather live where you do :thumbsup:
 
BUSTA WOOSTER said:
Dakotazeb; If your thinking about moving south I hear Kansas has great pheasant hunting/bird populations:D
Click to expand...

I don't know if I'm "Redneck" enough to move to Kansas! :D
 
Well ..... from what I saw today.... the birds in the Winner area did just fine making it through the blizzard. We went out for 2 hours this afternoon, after the wind went down. We saw 1000's of birds. The birds that we cleaned all were full of corn and cane seeds. One more day left. It's been another great season here in Tripp Co.
 
Looking at the snow depths map I would say Aberdeen and north and east got the deepest snow amounts. Another band would be from Miller north. I am at Pheasant Camp Lodge near Lake Andes and we got about 6-10 of fluffy stuff.

Walked out behind building yesterday at about 1pm after winds died down and walked into the milo food plots 50 feet from building. A soon as I stepped into the plot the ground lifted off and the sky turned black and I had a rare triple and fastest limit in the west (5 minutes) beat the old record of 15minutes. Conditions are awesome right after a storm like that.

Even more exciting than that was how well the milo food plots help up this year. Just a little bit was drifted in on the windward side and the rest was prime wintering/roosting cover now. Wind has also blown most of snow off fields here. Jumped a grizzled old buck out of his bed from the middle of a plot and it looked about like he had been laid up there for days,

Took some pics of food plots and will post when I get home.

Headed out today with a bunch of locals to "thin out the roosters" for the last day of season hunt. Might just be the best day too.
 
Well lets hope for some warmer weather in the near future. It still amazes me that anything can survive those cold/windy nights...I feel like I might die just running outside to start my vehicle. Just sent in my 2011 PF membership dues and a small donation in hopes that it will go to maintaining good winter habitat.
 
Down in the SE part of SD the 40 degree day on Wed was a life saver. The fields are less covered with snow know than before.
 
just cleaned my birds from my last hunt....never have I seen such gorgeous birds! Fat and perfect...doing well going into the tough stuff, which is good news. Never seen such a great looking 15 birds...truly presentation quality.
 
I agree with banger...

All the birds we cleaned yesterday we're plump with lots of yellow fat on them. These bird were the bigest we've hervested all year! They're a tuff bird and the carry over looks outstanding!
 
Same with us managed to hunt 3 days before the blizzard and bird numbers were good but the fat on those birds was amazing. Got out of Miller at 130 pm on Thursday driving south to I90 I was driving yellow dotted line to yellow dotted line to stay on road. I have a whole lot of respect for your SD blizzards. We made it to Des Moine the first night and then the rest of the way to Ohio on Friday. I think we covered most of the possible weather events in that trip except for a hurricane. Blizzard, ice in Sioux Falls and east of Des Moine, down pour of rain the entire state of Illinois including a tornado warning, high wind enough to raise my gas milage 2mpg from SiouxFalls to Des Moine. We had a good time and my son is definitely hooked on SD, but I will not venture back that late in the season again with that kind of storm potential always on the horizon, unless somebody whats to go along . I definitely got a better understanding about when you guys say any late season rooster is a trophy. They were definitely jumpy and just working through the snow that was on the ground it seemed my heart rate was always well above the 120 beats per minute mark and my shooting clearly was affected. We managed to get our birds but I certainly shoot better earlier in the fall. :cheers:
 
Yep, those late season roosters can be pretty jumpy. I have found that an effective tactic (alough not the safest or most sportsman like) is to run at the birds as soon as they start getting up ahead of you. If you really haul-butt you can usually get a crack at one of those skittish roosters. I hunted this year with a buddy that was a college wide reciever. He didn't have a dog but put up a limit of bird faster than me each day we hunted with his run and gun style of hunting.
 
Big Arctic blast coming in this Weekend, Start the supplemental feed!!!!
 
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